Richard Branson is often cited as a classic
example of an entrepreneur and indeed his early career would certainly appear
to justify this. However, a recent biography
by Tom Bower suggests that over the last few decades, Virgin’s achievements and
Branson’s continued success in staying rich have had very little to do with
being more innovative or more competitive than other firms and a lot to do with
getting favorable deals through privileged government contacts.
In addition Branson has used many dubious
maneouvres to avoid paying tax in his own country – most of us would be a lot richer
if we didn’t pay taxes!
In other words, despite his celebrated
rebel persona,
in practice he may not be too different to the notorious Russian oligarchs. http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n06/david-runciman/the-stuntman
